Shopping. *DUNH DUN DUNNNNNH*

[gone_byebye]

... all right, maybe not.

*ahem*

Ray emerges from the bar with April O'Neill in tow, heading along at that peculiar walk one assumes when one is thisclose to running but doesn't want to leave someone else behind. "She's right over there- see? Bonnie's been working on her, I've been working on her, it's been an amazing project- just be careful, Bonnie says she's not completely dry yet and I'd kind of like to be the first one to put a hand on her- anyway, this is her. Ecto-1..."

[Summary: Ray shows off Ecto to April, takes her back to his New York, acquaints her with Louis Tully's creepy product endorsements, and they head downtown to buy Ray a decent suit at Brooks Brothers for his high school reunion. There is also some breaky because the Brooks Brothers store in question is across the street from where the Twin Towers used to be.]

Comments

[gone_byebye]

Good, because the next part involved driving through the suddenly-open back door, into the actual main room of Milliways, past the people, straight at the front door-

*THUNK. THUNK. thunk. thunk.*

- and into the weirdly unhealthy-looking lighting of one of the longest tunnels to cross the Hudson River.

"Made it," said Ray with some satisfaction, happily easing back in the seat. The engine was purring like a kitten, the reflectors set into the tunnel's asphalt thunking away all but unnoticed, and forty miles an hour was no problem at all with the bare handful of other vehicles in the tunnel with them. "Welcome to my world, April. Such as it is."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April's head whipped around to look out the back window and behind them, but all that was there was tunnel. She grinned, turning back around in her seat. "That was painless," she remarked, and leaned forward to gaze up and out of the windsheild.

"Looks the same. Well, except for you, of course," she smirked.

[gone_byebye]

"Beats the heck out of my original transit back to New York, yeah," Ray said. "And it's early in the day, too. I left New York around ten in the morning so that I wouldn't have to contend with Canal Street traffic backing up into the tunnel- ugh, what a nightmare. Oh, there's something you should be aware of about the way things stand in my time..."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Which is?" April asked, arching a brow as she swept her unruly hair from her face.

[gone_byebye]

"The billboards. Brace yourself."

As the car shot out of the tunnel and into the roundabout that separated Tribeca from the rest of Manhattan, the subject in question came into view.

Louis Tully was doing product endorsements. Big-time.

Some people shouldn't be allowed to advertise eyeglass frames.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

A meep of surprise flew from April's lips before she covered her mouth with her hand, giggling.

"Oh my. Well, he certainly used that publicity to his advantage, didn't he?" she laughed.

[gone_byebye]

"It really only gets worse. There's an ad on the building across the street from the firehouse- two words. Keymaster. Cologne."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you're kidding me," April replied, gaping. "Please tell me you're kidding me."

[gone_byebye]

"I wish like hell I was," Ray said as the car rounded the corner of North Moore street. And sure enough, there on the building that had borne an ad for Stay-Puft Marshmallows in the movie... 'Unleash your inner terror dog!' and all.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"What does it smell like, dog breath?" April laughed, staring up at the ad through the glass. "No, wait, I know. Dog breath and roasted marshmallows, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"I would sooner gnaw off my own arm and eat it with badly-made Hollandaise sauce than find out, April. No offense or anything, but Tully's turned out to be kind of a creep now that he's got money." He eased off on the gas as the street briefly went to cobblestones. "And here..."

... was the Firehouse.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April snickered. "Oh, c'mon. A woman can't resists a man that smells like dog breath, Ray, didn't you know?"

Any further ribbing was cut short, however, as April gasped at the Firehouse. It didn't look all that much different from any other firehouse, really, except...

The sign.

She could have exploded with glee.

[gone_byebye]

Ray just smiled quietly and brought the car to a complete stop.

[OOC: 2 AM-ish at the moment. Shall we pause for the evening and go shopping tomorrow? stupid Eastern Standard Time...]

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"You must realize that inside I am squealing like a preteen at a Beatles concert," April remarked, giving Ray a sideways glance and a smile.

"Seriously."

[gone_byebye]

"I'm still getting used to that, to be honest," Ray said. "It's one thing to have fans in my own world, but being known so darn many places... that's a little overwhelming for a guy like me. Venkman, yeah, he's cool with it, but that's him, you know?'

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April chuckled at that, because yes, she knew. Peter did not seem to be shy of the limelight.

"Well, I promise I won't start screaming uncontrollably or crying or anything," she said, grinning.

[gone_byebye]

"Good. That's my job, given that we're going clothes shopping." Funny how he made it sound like 'visiting the dentist'.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Oh, now that doesn't sound like you're excited, Ray," April laughed. "I can't imagine why not." She gave him a wink. "I promise, it will be as brief and painless as I can manage it. Cross my heart." Which she then did, to emphasize her point.

[gone_byebye]

"All right, all right." Ray shook his head. "We're going to have to get a cab or take the subway or something, though. There's nowhere to park a car Ecto's size in shopping areas, unless we're on a job. So where are we headed?"

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Well, uh-" April mentally flailed. "I'm not really sure. We're looking for a suit, right? Who sells nice suits?"

April had never had to buy a suit for anyone before. They didn't make them in turtle size.

[gone_byebye]

"You don't know? I thought you knew!" She wasn't the only one flailing. "I mean, we got our uniforms from a guy on Thirty-eighth, but that's not the same- wait a minute-" He snapped his fingers. "That whole area- from Penn Station on north to about Forty-Seventh or so- that's the garment district, right? They've got that big bronze statue to the garment workers of the past and the giant needle and button sculpture? There's gotta be somebody in that part of the city who sells suits. Or something..."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Oh, God. I'm sorry. I've never had to buy a suit before. I don't hang out with too many humans," April replied sheepishly. "The garment district sounds like a good place to start. Um... Do they have Gucci here, or Prada? They make suits, I think, although they're gonna be high." She paused, biting against her bottom lip as she thought. "Oh-oh! Or Brooks Brothers! They've got nice suits. I see their ads in Esquire a lot."

[gone_byebye]

"Brooks Brothers, then," Ray says. "The other two I don't know anything about. I think they make shoes and handbags and things like that. We'll need to stop at the bank first- I've got some money I was putting aside for the Bondurant School, but with what I've been doing with Kitt and Karr I don't need to worry about Bondurant any more, so the school money should do for a decent suit. I think."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Bondurant School?" April asked, curious. "What sort of school is that for?" She looked around to collect her purse, and then realized that she hadn't brought one. Not that she was a very "purse-carrying" sort of girl. She had about sixty bucks and her driver's license in her pocket, and that would typically suffice.

[gone_byebye]

"High performance driving," Ray says. "It's out in the Arizona desert. Bob Bondurant was a champion racecar driver who retired to teach instead of put his neck on the line for prizes. Some people go for the chance to drive racecars, some for ordinary defensive driving from a guy who knows the subject, and some because they're going to be working for people who might be kidnapped or shot at and want to have an extra edge in handling their vehicles on the road. Ecto's not a limousine but she handles about as well as a stretch model, so I thought it might help."